Army may take shot with new look

Opponents have to guard against the fullback smashing up the middle, a quarterback keeper or a pitch outside to a quick back.

Army, the two-time national rushing leader, is experimenting with a new wrinkle that could make life tougher on defensive coordinators.

This spring practice, freshman A.J. Schurr has something in common with NFL quarterbacks Robert Griffin and Colin Kaepernick. Schurr is taking some snaps from a shotgun position in a modified read-option look.

The shotgun "opens things up, but that's not to say we are getting away from our bread-and-butter triple option, which has proved we can give anybody in the country fits with," Schurr said. "It's just something else for teams to look at. If they see us come out in the shotgun, their head starts spinning. They've never seen that from us."

Army is looking for anything that can improve its passing attack, which averaged just four completions per game last season. Army quarterbacks have completed 4.6 passes per game in coach Rich Ellerson's four seasons.

The new formation also could help with ball security, which has been the offense's downfall the last two seasons.

"We don't need to readjust that much of the run game because we are the best in the country at doing that, but we do need to be more efficient throwing the ball," said offensive coordinator Ian Shields. "And there are some advantages in the run game as well when you talk about angles. In some ways, the ball is less exposed back there because it gets away from the line of scrimmage quicker."

This isn't Shields' first time adding a shotgun into an option offense. Under Ellerson at Cal Poly, Shields said the offense ran the shotgun 70 or 80 percent of the time in 2004 and 2005. Cal Poly completed 271 passes over the two seasons.

"It's in our background," Shields said.

Schurr, sophomore Angel Santiago and freshman Kelvin White were shotgun quarterbacks in high school. Schurr ran a version of Northwestern's offense his senior season at Libertyville (Ill.) High.

"All of the quarterbacks are comfortable, to a certain extent," Schurr said. "It's fun for us.

"It's proven that teams have trouble with it. We have four athletic quarterbacks and we can all read and run the option."

The other QB he referred to is junior Cody Jackson.

Will a read-option, shotgun-style offense be a permanent page in Army's playbook?

"Whether we continue down that path probably remains to be seen," Shields said. "We have a lot of time now following spring practice to look at all of these reps. ... We don't know. It would be premature to say one way or another."

One way or another, Army knows it must find a way to force defenses to honor its passing game in the fall.